


"Why Can't You"

by w_s



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Established Barson, F/M, Fluff, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-17 22:38:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7288861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/w_s/pseuds/w_s
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Little fic from a prompt I saw on a list somewhere for writers. Thought some established Barson might be nice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"Why Can't You"

Prompt: Why Can’t You?   
Rafael Barba groped around the floor half-asleep looking for some clothing. He had been halfway to the door before realizing that he wasn’t home and shouldn’t stumble around naked just in case. Finally, he found his sweats and a t-shirt, pulled them on and stumbled towards the bathroom. On his way back from the bathroom he heard a small voice, “Raf?” Rafael turned around to see three and a half year old Noah standing in the hallway.   
“Hey little man.” Barba whispered and walked towards him. He kneeled down, “Why aren’t you asleep?”  
“I dunno.” Noah shrugged and rubbed his eyes. “I just woke up.”  
“Well it’s not quite time to get up.” Barba replied. “Why don’t you head back to bed and try to get a bit more sleep?”   
“I need a story.”   
“Okay.” Barba frowned. “Well your Mama is asleep …” Barba didn’t really want to wake up Olivia at three in the morning when she knew we would be up at six when Noah go up. Plus she had been working really hard lately and seemed exhausted. He hoped that Noah would accept this and just go to sleep without pressing the matter.   
“Why can’t you do it?” Noah asked.   
“Read you a story?” Barba was surprised at the request. He and Olivia had been together for a few months and he was spending more and more time at Olivia’s place. Noah seemed to like him well enough and Barba had found himself slowly getting more comfortable around him. Barba was pretty impressed with himself actually since he and Noah had spent the last few evenings building block towers after dinner. Barba had never imagined himself to be the kind of person to spend time with kids or like them but he really enjoyed playing with Noah and was surprised to find out that Noah seemed to like to hang out with him too. Still, this made Barba a little nervous. It was so beyond his comfort zone. “Alright buddy. I guess I can do that.” Noah slid his little hand into Rafael’s and led him towards his room.   
Noah handed Barba a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and climbed into bed. Noah sat on the edge of the bed and began reading. He felt a little uncomfortable but found himself rediscovering his high school theatre days and got into the voices. Noah fell asleep part way through and found himself feeling weirdly disappointed that he didn’t get to finish reading the story. “Sleep well little man.” Despite the fact that it wasn’t even three-thirty in the morning Barba no longer felt tired. Normally, this would make him feel grumpy. His job meant that he always got up early and stayed up late. His sleep was everything but he as Barba walked back to bed he realized he was strangely happy. He crawled back into bed next to Olivia with a grin on her face.   
“Mmm where were you?” Olivia asked sleepily as she wrapped her arm around Barba’s stomach.   
“Noah woke up so I read him a story.” Barba replied and kissed the top of her head.   
“You read him a story?” Olivia looked up with a puzzled look on her face.   
“As it turns out I do know how to read.” He replied dryly.   
“And as it turns out you can manage to make my heart melt and be an ass at the same time.” Olivia kissed his chest and snuggled up closer to him. Olivia began to quickly drift off to sleep.   
“Te amo.” He whispered unsure if he wanted her to hear him or not.


End file.
